What to use instead of anelli
Small rings hold a little sauce in the centre. Soup for the small grade, a baked timballo with ragu and cheese for the medium.
The closest swap: ditalini
Tiny tubes for soup.
Anelli is pastina, 2 to 4 mm long, 8 to 11 minutes in the pot. Ditalini sits in the pastina family and cooks in 7 to 10 minutes. Match the cook time first. A swap that is right in shape and wrong in time still ends up wrong on the plate.
Every swap for anelli, ranked
A substitute must behave the same way with the sauce you are making. The ones marked as chosen are hand-picked. The rest score on family, cavity, surface, size, and shared sauces.
- 1
Ditalini
Pastina · Campania
Tiny tubes for soup (chosen)
- 2
Calamarata
Tubes · Campania
Large rings (chosen)
- 3
Rotelle
Short shapes · All of Italy
Wheels (chosen)
- 4
Farfalline
Pastina · All of Italy
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 2 sauces, close in size
- 5
Quadrucci
Pastina · Lazio
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 2 sauces, close in size
- 6
Acini di pepe
Pastina · All of Italy
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 2 sauces
- 7
Alphabet pasta
Pastina · All of Italy
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 2 sauces
- 8
Orzo
Pastina · All of Italy
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 2 sauces
Match the sauce, not the look
Anelli is listed against 4 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- Best pasta for in brodo: A clear meat or chicken broth. Pastina or filled pasta, cooked and served in the liquid.
- Best pasta for minestrone: A thick vegetable soup with beans and a small pasta added at the end. Ditalini, conchigliette, or anellini.
- Best pasta for baked (al forno): Pasta finished in the oven with sauce and cheese, or stuffed and baked. It needs a sturdy shape that survives twice cooking.
- Best pasta for meat ragu: Any slow meat sauce with solids in it. It wants a shape with a cavity: a wide tube, a cup, or a broad ribbon.
Side by side
The measured difference between anelli and each swap.